Weekly Round Up: Keeping It Real

Time for this week’s round-up of the best of the blog posts which I’ve read over the past week. These are the posts that have moved me, taught me something, inspired me, and which I’ve wanted to share with you. Don’t forget if you have written a post which you would like readers to see, just leave a comment below.

And so the pink onslaught continues during “the Pepto Bismol dipped month of October” as Brittcalls it. Katie shares an image of Komen’s pink pig calendar which she spotted in a book store:

“I don’t appreciate a calendar that sounds like it could have been ripped from the pages of My Little Pony to be associated with something this serious.”, writes Katie. “What other disease gets this sort of fluffy, childish treatment? Imagine how weird it would seem if there were something comparable for colon cancer, heart disease, brain tumors, diabetes, zika, or for the love of all things holy, prostate cancer??”

Becky calls out those charities who should be educating us, rather than trivializing breast cancer.

Many people are active in advocacy for breast cancer research as well as for increasing access to quality healthcare. These are critically important concerns. Then the pink tsunami comes in and interrupts with new messages, one of using a disease as a marketing tactic and wrapping it in “awareness” a construct, which is vague and inoffensive.

Ann re-posts her right to the heart of it article, originally published on Healthline, sharing her perspective on turning from an over-emphasis on awareness to more research.

Uzma reminds us that for those living with metastatic breast cancer “every month is October.” Claudiaagrees and writes:

For me, every month is breast cancer awareness month. I can’t parse out the time of year when I’ll focus on breast cancer; for me, every month, week, day and moment is a reminder of breast cancer and its aftermath.

And on a similar theme Wendireveals the winning tweet from last week’s #BreastCancerRealityCheck event, and Terri ventures the opinion that”#BreastCancerRealityCheck should be revisited more than once a year.”

Dr Deanna Attai reminds us to “think twice about buying those pink breath mints. If you want to make a purchase to honor a loved one, make sure you know whether or not any money will be donated for breast cancer research, education, or support. If you are donating to an organization, make sure that organization is funding programs that you support.” And Vickiesuggests some worthy recipients of your donations.

Elsewhere in the blogosphere…

A lovely post from Nancyon going beyond the pink madness and reclaiming October for herself.

My name is Minwoong Chung and I am a graduate student at Michigan State University. I am working with Dr. Jingbo Meng, who is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication, and Dr. Steve Rains who is an Associate Professor in University of Arizona. We are conducting a study about online communication and cancer and would greatly appreciate it if you would complete our survey. We found your blog by conducting a general search for blogs about cancer. We would like to know more about your experiences.

Our survey takes about 30 minutes to complete. To participate, you must be (a) 18 years of age or older and (b) have been diagnosed by a medical doctor with cancer. We greatly appreciate your time and are happy to offer you a $5 Amazon gift card for completing the survey. At the end of the survey, you’ll be asked to submit an email address where we can mail the gift card.

If you meet these requirements and would like to participate, please click the link below. The study will be conducted online and the link will take you to the first webpage of the survey.

Can you believe it – I forgot it was breast cancer awareness month. Somehow it doesn’t seem to touch Canada so much as it does elsewhere. However, it is worth marking. I don’t love pink wash, but I am grateful that this cancer is still be chased down.

". . .and the world cannot be discovered by a journey of miles, no matter how long, but only by a spiritual journey, a journey of one inch, very arduous and humbling and JOYFUL, by which we arrive at the ground at our own feet, and learn to be at home."
Wendell Berry